Jan 27, 2022·edited Jan 27, 2022Liked by Ted Gioia
"A new study shows "that while listening to music, the brain is also predicting the music just as it is when people imagine hearing it. This means that listening involves two processes: auditory processing and cognitive predicting."
I recently picked up the 100-CD Soviet legacy box of classical music. All live recordings from decades past, wonderful performances almost every one of which is marred by excessive coughing and rustling from the audience. I used to be able to tune out the chaff but thanks to twenty years of listening to noise/field recordings/etc my brain now insists on analyzing the coughing and rustling to figure out how it ties into the music.
I'm a glutton for books on music, and Leonard Meyer’s is already on my list. I also recommend the book I'm currently reading - David Huron "Sweet Anticipation, music and the psychology of expectation", which also deals with predictability, although he calls it expectation, and I frame it as pattern matching. He writes very well, explains technical stuff so you can understand it, and I've learned a lot so far. He also cites Meyer. It's definitely one of the best books I've read on the subject.
"A new study shows "that while listening to music, the brain is also predicting the music just as it is when people imagine hearing it. This means that listening involves two processes: auditory processing and cognitive predicting."
I recently picked up the 100-CD Soviet legacy box of classical music. All live recordings from decades past, wonderful performances almost every one of which is marred by excessive coughing and rustling from the audience. I used to be able to tune out the chaff but thanks to twenty years of listening to noise/field recordings/etc my brain now insists on analyzing the coughing and rustling to figure out how it ties into the music.
So now I'm retraining my brain. Again.
Pure gold.
I'm a glutton for books on music, and Leonard Meyer’s is already on my list. I also recommend the book I'm currently reading - David Huron "Sweet Anticipation, music and the psychology of expectation", which also deals with predictability, although he calls it expectation, and I frame it as pattern matching. He writes very well, explains technical stuff so you can understand it, and I've learned a lot so far. He also cites Meyer. It's definitely one of the best books I've read on the subject.